Josh

Popularity Trends

The name Josh is the #1,975 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 17,094 recorded births since 1880. This represents the 74.5% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 74.5% of all names). For boys, it ranks #881 (80.8% percentile) for all time with 17,094 births since 1880.

Josh has appeared in U.S. birth records since the beginning of our dataset in 1880

For boys, Josh reached its peak popularity in 1979, achieving the 53.6% percentile (ranked #320) with 296 births per million. The name was most common in 1974, with 302 births per million (ranked 50.6% percentile). Since reaching a high point around 2007, the popularity of this name for boys has been declining. Currently, Josh ranks #827 for boys (9.2% percentile) with 49 births per million, which is 16.1% of its peak share of births.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Josh".

1880 2023 18802023

Key Statistics

Total Births

17,094

Peak Births

531

Peak Year

1979

First Recorded

1880

Peak Percentile

53.6%

Current Percentile

9.2%

Peak Rank

#320

Current Rank

#827

Male statistics

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Josh", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Josh.

Names with Correlated Trends

These 12 names have popularity trends that correlate most strongly with the name Josh's popularity from 1880 to 2023 on a gender-neutral basis. Names may rise and fall in popularity for a variety of reasons, but correlations often reflect either changes in naming fashion or demographic shifts.

The correlation calculations in the table below ignore absolute popularity to show you names that move in similar directions as the name Josh at the same time. They also correct for changes in the overall birth rate over time. The 0-100% trend values are calculated by dividing each name's gender-neutral births per million by the peak births per million for that name.

The 12 names most strongly correlated to Josh range from Corrie at 83.1% correlation to Amie at 68.0% correlation, with an average correlation level of 74.0%. The most popular of these 12 most correlated names is Carrie with 267.4K births (100% girls) and the least popular is Manda with 3.3K births (100% girls).

Josh's share of births peaked at 302.4 births per million for boys in 1979. It reached its lowest point of 17.2 births per million (6% of peak) in 1943. In 2023, the most recent period with data, the name Josh had 48.6 births per million, 16% of its peak popularity.

This chart shows how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak (100%).

Corrie

9,766

83.11% (very strong)

Malissa

8,858

80.91% (very strong)

Liza

17.4k

79.46% (strong)

Charity

35.4k

79.15% (strong)

Susanna

19.6k

77.00% (strong)

Johanna

53.7k

73.07% (strong)

Elisha

29.3k

71.15% (strong)

Tressa

7,022

70.70% (strong)

Carrie

267.4k

69.83% (strong)

Malinda

21.3k

68.15% (strong)

Manda

3,294

68.03% (strong)

Amie

21.6k

67.98% (strong)

About this table: Correlation values are shown as percentages from 0% to 100%, with each value accompanied by its strength (very weak to very strong). Higher percentages and stronger correlations indicate names that rise and fall together more closely in popularity. The strength labels are color-coded from gray (very weak) to green (very strong). The Trend column visualizes how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak. Absolute correlation values are shown for simplicity (all correlations here are positive). The Total Births column is color-coded by gender distribution - blue shades for predominantly male names and red shades for predominantly female names, with purple hues indicating a more balanced gender distribution.

How to Pronounce Josh

Our model has identified 2 different pronunciations for the name Josh. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 85.0% confident that Josh is pronounced as jahsh, which has 1 syllables. The next most likely pronunciation is jawsh, at 15.0% confidence, with 1 syllables.

jahsh

85.0%

jawsh

15.0%

jahsh (1 syllable)

Verified

85.0% confidence

JH AA1 SH

jawsh (1 syllable)

15.0% confidence

JH AO1 SH

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Josh? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Josh. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Josh, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like JH AA1 SH) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker

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